Pulitzer prize winning journalist Azmat Khan shadow-banned by Instagram on Gaza posts

Shadowbanning by Instagram continues as Israel’s war on Gaza is being criticized. This time Pulitzer winning journalist Azmat Khan has been targeted by the social media giant.

Azmat is an investigative reporter with New York Times, a Carneige Fellow and the Birch Assistant Professor at Columbia Journalism School.

She took to Twitter (now X) and wrote, “After posting an Instagram story about the war in Gaza yesterday, my account was shadowbanned.”

Khan expressed concerns affirmed by fellow journalists, “It’s an extraordinary threat to the flow of information and credible journalism about an unprecedented war.”

After posting an Instagram story about the war in Gaza yesterday, my account was shadowbanned. Many colleagues and journalists friends have reported the same. It’s an extraordinary threat to the flow of information and credible journalism about an unprecedented war…

— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) October 15, 2023

She laid it all out for the world to know that the situation is getting dire for the journalists reporting from the war-zone. There are already extraordinary challenges to getting information from the ground — the killing of journalists, internet blackouts and electricity cuts— but these reports from journalists raise troubling questions about free press in this war.

There are already extraordinary challenges to getting information from the ground — the killing of journalists, internet and electricity cuts, and more — but these reports from journalists raise troubling questions about the free press in this war. https://t.co/bznEPDaS7j

— Azmat Khan (@AzmatZahra) October 15, 2023

Other journalists weighed in by pointing out the rampant shadowbanning which may cause the valuable on-ground documentation to be lost. Alessandro Accorsi hinted at the “mistake” by which meta banned all content related to Sheikh Jarrah back in 2021.

Growing reports of Palestinian content getting shadowbanned on Instagram and Facebook.

This potentially includes valuable images documenting what is happening on the ground.

In 2021, Meta had banned all content related to Sheikh Jarrah and Al-Aqsa "due to a mistake". https://t.co/OfQ6DlKv3f

— Alessandro Accorsi (@ale_accorsi) October 15, 2023